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EU to provide €150,000 in aid to Lombok

The EU will contribute €150,000 of emergency assistance to communities most affected by the recent earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok, the European Commission announced Wednesday. It said that the aid will help provide access to relief items and access to clean water and basic health care to 4,000 people. The EU is also providing maps of the struck region made by its Copernicus satellite mapping system.

This is a political crisis unprecedented in Austria since the war: the resignation of the vice-chancellor, firing of the interior minister, the mass resignation of FPO ministers, a snap election, and a no-confidence vote in the Austrian parliament on Monday.

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A planned high-speed railway connection through the Alps between Italy and France has been highly controversial for decades and is pitting governing Italian coalition parties against each other. But the European Commission insists it must go ahead.